"You're now responsible for every bad thing that's ever happened." --Speaker Billy McCoy, Jan 8, 2008, congratulating me just after we took the oath of office.

Early Childhood Education

As I become more immersed in education policy, both at the K-12 and higher education levels, as well as research policy viewpoints aimed at combating poverty, studies point to early childhood education as one of the most potent tools communities should develop. While no initiative, policy or idea is a silver bullet to fix generations of cyclical poverty and social ills, quality pre-kindergarten programs help children of all socioeconomic backgrounds arrive at kindergarten "school-ready." Indeed, longitudinal studies show pre-K has promising effects in bridging the achievement gap between rich and poor students over the long run.

Because Mississippi will most likely never have the money to launch universal pre-K throughout the state (and you could make the argument that Mississippi's state government shouldn't try), I believe we have to approach early childhood education from a team, collaborative approach. Meaning, to make it work in a poor state, you have to create an effective network of resources and providers from the private sector, government, non-profits and faith-based institutions.

And despite our budget woes that will likely exist for the next few years, we're already seeing signs of these collaborations taking place. Mississippi Building Blocks, a 3-year pilot program, led by the private-sector, began earlier this summer. This initiative will provide financial support and training to 100 early childhood education providers throughout the state. The Mississippi Economic Council and MBB Executive Director Dr. Laurie Smith deserve a lot of thanks for getting this project underway.

Furthermore, the Mississippi Legislature passed a bill last year enabling local school districts to utilize any available funds to operate early childhood education programs. Governor Barbour signed this bill into law. While only enabling legislation, not actual funding, it moves us in the right direction of putting ownership into the hands of local school districts.

But there's more work to do. In order to help Hattiesburg Public Schools, we need our non-profits, local private sector and our churches to pitch in. We have to develop a coalition (a real working group, not another committee that just meets to meet) where money is donated to help would-be Hattiesburg Public School pupils enroll in quality pre-K centers. We need churches and other providers to open up "scholarship" roster spots for economically-disadvantaged children. By utilizing a team approach, I strongly believe we can turn the long-term fortunes of our school district around.

Research articles worth a look:

Gormley's Study on Oklahoma's Pre-K Program